Mirror: Demons
by Snufflefeet
Summary: Wearing a mask of weakness, forged in insanity, tempered by reason. Baptised by blood, tested by fire, hated by dawn and dusk. Dawn will fall, dusk will fail and herald the coming of midnight.
1. Rising

Disclaimer : I own **NOTHING. **Everything belongs to Masashi Kishimoto... Brilliant manga artist that he is.

* * *

One year after the Kyuubi's attack, in an unknown hideout in the depths of one of the five great Ninja villages, an experiment that would determine the future was underway...

"Experiment 9B is in progress. Systems green. All vital signs clear. Specimen condition stable. Transfusion of adrenaline active. Commencing the importing of experimental substance Spiral..."

A shadowy figure watched the scientists conducting the surgical procedure with immense satisfaction.

So far so good. It went much better than he had expected.

With mild disappointment, he had found the security surrounding the specimen to be lax to the point of absurdity. Only one jounin, two chuunin and a civilian to guard one of the most pivotal pieces on the checkerboard of the future? Fools. Then again, perhaps they were not to blame.

After all, nearly a half of their forces had been sent to their deaths against one of the nine demons of the land. Such was the reach of his organisation. Hundreds of able ninja dead at no cost to themselves because of their subterfuge. That was the way they operated, afterall.

He had infiltrated the building, retrieved the specimen, and made a getaway easily. Except for a small altercation involving his previous student, the retrieval had been smooth. Fluid. In and out.

However, he knew that he would have to relocate soon. His foolish student would probably sound the alarm. Reinforcements were likely to swoop in within the next twenty-four hours.

Thankfully, he was prepared.

"Experimental procedure was a success. Implantation of organic chip met no issues. It was a good thing, however, that you found a way to suppress the tenant in a more conducive manner for the procedure. It might have had unknown side-effects otherwise," reported the head scientist. However, his employer was lost in his own thoughts.

The scientist, while mildly irritated, could not help but marvel at his employer's immense potential. Learning a delicate technique in only three tries? Impressive, although his talent was far outstripped by another.

That one would bring peace to the world, regardless of whether it wanted it or not. If need be, that one was prepared to slay the world with the sword of peace. Such was the world they lived in, that experimentation of a specimen so young was justified for such a worthy cause.

The shadowy figure had not noticed the head scientist. He was reflecting on the specimen, whom he had not expected to possess such potent bloodlines, including one to rival even the highly-coveted Sharingan. That had been quite the surprise. Already, he had begun showing some signs of the bloodlines' manifestation, unlike his father who had only achieved competency in his bloodline during his jounin years.

Only time would tell if the specimen would be able to master the bloodlines when they began to war against each other, or be consumed by the vast power within. Could life get any sweeter than this?

Experimentation, and observation, whilst the host within raged and fought an impossible battle for the home he had loved in his own way. It served him right for daring to try the unknown.

The humans had a saying that went, 'Danger is curiosity'. How apt.

Startlingly, the specimen stirred. He was still unconscious, however.

Yellow met blue as the specimen's empty gaze met his maniacal glower. Cackling ensued in the otherwise silent lab.

* * *

The room was illuminated by a dim lightbulb overhead that cast ominous shadows onto the crevices of the room. Four squads of masked ANBU, for a total of twelve ANBU were gathered around a rectangular table where an aged man wearing formal Hokage garb complete with ceremonial hat stood. The wisened man gave all present a cursory look. He had wished for more, to assure success.

Nonetheless, the operation must continue.

"Dear comrades, we've been gathered here for an important assignment," spoke a dog-masked ninja clad in the standard ANBU issue vestments. Reaching into his pouch, he took out, and unsealed a scroll, before unfurling the map it contained.

"Sarutobi-sama, if you please."

"Orochimaru, my wayward student, who many believed would be my successor for the position of Fourth Hokage was recently proven to be experimenting on humans. Civilians, numerous genin, chuunin and some jounin were all victims of his blatant disregard for life. While we do not know how he managed to abduct these ninjas without any alarm being sounded, it is clear that we must not allow this to continue."

The Sandaime Hokage paused for breath, before gesturing at the dog-masked ANBU.

"His hideout, according to intel, has been found to be directly underneath the Hokage Tower. Today, we must infiltrate his lair and capture him ALIVE. He must be alive so that our torture and interrogation specialists have something to work with. Don't underestimate him. He also has captured the jinchuuriki of the nine-tailed fox, who was previously presumed dead after he vanished for a month. Proceed with extreme caution. We want both Orochimaru, and the jinchuuriki alive-"

"Hokage-sama, will you be accompanying us?" burst in a rabbit-masked ANBU, to disapproving looks from his superiors.

With some resignation, the dog-masked ANBU shook his head slightly. Rookies.

However, Sarutobi merely waved a hand dismissively.

"Yes."

* * *

In the lair of the snakes, the four teams dissembled.

**__**"Teams four and seven. Are you in place?"

"Yes. Are your teams, five and eight in place, Commander?"

"Affirmative. Remember, this seal is special. Remove the sub-seals on my signal. I will fry the circuits with a controlled Raiton jutsu. On my mark.."

"When?"

"Wait for it... Wait... Wait..."

"When...?"

"Now!"

A loud explosion greeted the exclamation as the entrance to the lair swung open. Within minutes, the four ANBU teams reassembled in front of the Third, who looked into the lair of his student. He never had any idea that such a lair existed below the Hokage Tower. What else had he missed about his student? What darker secrets might he be concealing? Time, and liberal application of interrogation devices would tell.

"Remember, extreme caution. Don't touch anything." cautioned the leader of squad four, a cat-masked kunoichi. "Squad seven, you may proceed."

Squad seven proceeded in cautiously, mindful of any traps that may have been waiting to be sprung. Minutes later, they who specialised in reconnaisance and scouting operations gave the all-clear. All the traps had been disarmed, although some had been particularly difficult.

As the remaining squads entered the lair, a large snake greeted them. Several ANBU started flashing through handseals before realising that the extremely life-like statue was just that, a statue.

Sheepishly lowering their appendages, the ninjas assembled in front of the statue. The dog-masked ANBU snorted in amusement. Rookies getting jumpy.

Only then did the dog-masked ANBU take stock of his surroundings. He was in a large chamber, with no visible exits other than that which they had entered from. Evidently, it was some sort of sparring facility, though it was spartan.

"How do we proceed, Hokage-sama?"

"Knowing Orochimaru... He would probably have an entrance in the snake's maw. Clear the area in front of its jaws and force it to open."

The ninja converged on the sides of the gigantic serpent statue. As one, they forced their weapons into the gap between upper and lower jaw, channeled chakra to their limbs, and heaved.

As the jaws opened, the ninjas scattered in the nick of time. A highly corrosive acid squirted from the outstretched fangs of the snake. One shinobi who failed to move in time was consumed by the deadly acid.

Writhing in pain, the shinobi from squad four squealed in anguish as the acid ate through his skull. Ignoring the brain matter seeping through the new orifices of the fallen shinobi, the Hokage ordered his subordinates to leave their comrade behind. Nothing could be done for him.

One field-signal later, the squads carefully proceeded through the gaping maw of the snake, slid down its throat and found themselves in a labyrinth of dim corridors.

"Figures..." muttered a dog-masked ANBU. "Squad seven, proceed north. Squad five, proceed south. My squad, squad eight, follow me east. Hokage-sama, please go west, together with the remnants of squad four."

"Scatter!"

Upon the Sandaime's order, the elite ninjas moved. What would they find?

* * *

(Squad Seven)

After a long corridor that seemed as if it would never end, the boar, goat and tiger-masked shinobis found themselves peering at what appeared to be a lounge. What got their attention however, was not the lavish furniture, nor the outlandish decorations.

It was the six hostile ninjas who had spotted them. They readied themselves for battle.

A pity they did not notice the figure who had been following them for a while.

Three masked decapitated heads dropped with a ominous thud.

* * *

(Squad five)

Whatever squad five had expected, it was not this. Barring their way were two individuals wearing cloaks emblazoned with white suns.

"What luck. We came to evaluate Orochimaru's progress and we get such a treat. Hello, little ninjas... We won't let you live..."

A hellish scream echoed throughout the labyrinth.

* * *

(Squad eight)

A dull whirr heralded the shift from normal eyes to the sharingan as squad five, the combat specialists, faced... themselves?

A distant scream cut through the tangible tension, broke the silence and sparked the battle.

Countless fire jutsus clashed against counterparts of themselves as the enemy mirrored squad eight's movements completely.

Kunai hit kunai, shurikens whizzed towards each other, punch was met for punch. Swords clashed, scythes locked and movements were mirrored perfectly.

Punch for punch, kick for kick, squad eight, combat specialists of the sharingan, fought what would prove to be their toughest battle for a long time to come. Afterall, how do you defeat someone who looked like you, thought like you, fought like you, and for all intents and purposes, could match you blow for blow?

Squad eight was fully intent on finishing their individual opponents. Their opponents however, had synergy.

A pity that only Inu would survive to remember this battle forever, as it cemented the importance of teamwork for him. Afterall, only a last-ditch effort by his teammates to impale themselves on the weapons of their dopplegangers bought him the opportunity to finish an increasingly desperate fight.

* * *

(Remnants of squad four and the Sandaime)

Capsules and tubes of many different shapes and sizes lined the ominous lab they found themselves in after a lifetime of tension in the labyrinth.

"What are these, Hokage-sama?" remarked the cat-masked kunoichi in disgust, peering closer at the liquid-filled capsules, before recoiling as SOMETHING inside snapped at her.

"Abominations, civilians unlucky enough to be noticed by Orochimaru. I never knew..." remarked the Sandaime grimly with a tinge of sorrow at the depths his former student had fallen to.

Abruptly, the Sandaime noticed the presence of another. Wheeling around, he spiked his chakra in warning.

"Speak of the devil," remarked the stoic rooster-masked shinobi as a shadowy figure loomed in front of the trio..

"Orochimaru," spat the cat-masked kunoichi with much vitriole. "You should have ran when you had the chance. Now you will come quietly with us."

She began the seals for a potent paralysis jutsu.

She charged forward, only to be tugged back by the impassive Hokage.

"No. Can't you see?"

Slightly disorientated, the kunoichi examined the shadowy figure of the sannin once more. "See what, Hokage-sama?"

"He hasn't moved, nor spoken. The Orochimaru I knew was an extremely talkative brat from the get-go. He doesn't miss a chance to gloat. In that respect, he was similar to my other students. In addition, he doesn't possess a shadow."

In wonder, the kunoichi muttered, "An advanced bunshin?"

"Affirmative," her stoic teammate confirmed.

"We're too late. He's gone," sighed the Sandaime. However, before the trio turned to leave, the Sandaime suddenly remembered.

"Naruto." he breathed.

"Scatter and search for him. Comb the area with a comb so fine that it traps dirt." commanded the man who had been the strongest ninja of the village in his prime.

After a back-breaking search that turned up more horrors than not, finally, the rooster-masked shinobi found the blond jinchuuriki in one of the capsules. Unsheathing his katana with a slight cough, he spun it clockwise, slowly gaining momentum before striking the capsule with such violence that the glass shattered and freed the blond.

"Mission accomplished. Orochimaru escaped, but the jinchuuriki was retrieved."

* * *

The Sandaime was very displeased. After delegating the task of safeguarding the blond to some jounins who had just returned from an infiltration mission, he and squad eight had returned to check on the other squads. What he found was nauseating.

What remained of squad seven were three neatly decapitated bodies.

Squad five were mere bloody smears in the ground.

Only one person, the dog-masked ANBU commander, of squad eight survived, but he might not be fit for combat duty anytime soon due to lasting psychological scars.

Feeling the beginnings of a headache, the Sandaime dismissed the newly reformed squad four, who were reassigned under the ANBU commander, and began the return to his beloved office.

His troubles were only beginning, however. Recently, Jiraiya, his only remaining loyal student, had brought him dubious intelligence. Unusual. His intel was rarely unreliable. The fact that the information was so sketchy was worrying.

Apparently, there were several S-class missing nins banding together under two rival banners. In addition, Jiraiya had brought news of a disturbing prophecy from the Toads of Mountain Myoboku.

'That could pose a problem.' thought the Sandaime. However, it was nothing Konoha could not handle. However, more worrying rumours had reached Jiraiya's ears from within the organisation itself.

The rumours were unfounded, but _very _persistent. The moles within the S-class organisation whispered of an even greater organisation consisting of hundreds of missing nins ranging from A-class to SS-class under the banner of one SSS-class missing nin. Some were worried that their S-class organisation had been compromised.

"That's impossible," snorted the Sandaime when Jiraiya had conveyed the report. "There has only been two SSS-class missing nins in the history of the Elemental Countries.. The first lived over a thousand years ago. The second was barely slayed by a combined campaign by all the people of the land, while he was recuperating from a debilitating illness a hundred years prior."

However, he wasn't so sure now. Even a rumour of an SSS-class missing nin was worrying, and must be kept under wraps. Though the memory of the common people had faded, the leaders of the ninja villages were given standing orders from their predecessors to destroy any and all SSS-class ninjas.

The only problem was that such ninjas could only be defeated by a collective effort by armies from multiple hidden villages, in certain circumstances, and with heavy losses.

Not only did they have powerful underlings, they themselves shattered the land in their time.

The armies sent against them would be slaughtered, and their villages would be the weaker for it. None of the hidden villages wanted to do it, for a weakened village was easy prey for the other hidden villages.

It would start a whole new Shinobi War.

Dire times were on the horizon. And the prophecy...

"He comes..

Wearing a mask of weakness,  
Forged in insanity,  
Baptised by blood,  
Tested by fire,

Hated by Dawn and Dusk,  
Dawn will fall,  
Dusk will fail,  
and herald the coming of midnight."

The Sandaime did not know what to make of it. Did the mask of weakness mean that he was a shinobi? Did the blood and fire mean the hidden villages would burn? Did midnight mean the end of all hope? Who did the prophecy refer to? Would he be salvation, or damnation?

* * *

Twelve years later, in the ninja academy of Konoha, an annual ritual was commencing. The Ninja Graduation Examination.

The blond "jinchuuriki" had grown up. Once a lively infant, he is now a lively kid... Although not as lively as he was normally, because the circumstances he found himself in.

Naruto ignored the jeers as he walked down the aisle to take the graduation test. Absently scratching the back of his neck where an intricate seal was located, he promptly prepared to perform the jutsu that would determine his future.

'Form the seals...'

He began the handseals. To his horror, his sweaty palms meant his handseals was sloppy at best.

'Gather the chakra...' he mused to himself. Blueish wisps of chakra began to circle around the blond, whose brow was wrinkled in concentration.

The chakra began spinning faster, around and in his body.

Like a calm river, it flowed faster and faster. A fast-flowing river. Faster and Faster. A torrent, faster and faster.

'Oh no... Not that fast.. That's how I failed last time...' he mentally groaned. Trying and failing to slow it down, he decided to cut his losses. He took the plunge.

"Bunshin no jutsu! (Clone Technique)"

When the smoke cleared, only one Naruto was standing. His replication slumped at his feet, motionless, malformed and all-in-all, useless.

"You fail!" bellowed his frustrated instructor, the tanned brunette Iruka.

* * *

As everyone else left the academy with smiling faces, a lone figure sat alone at the swings. He had been the only one to fail. Dejected, he moped. He had had such high hopes. The academy registration officers had decided to let him into the academy two years earlier than anyone else, for he had showed such promise.

Then, he had failed twice, and was with his batch once more. Still, he had ?

From afar, his instructor watched him with a predatory gaze. Surely this child would be open to any suggestion that might allow him to pass.

As Mizuki approached Naruto, the sound of his footsteps merely caused the child to briefly glance at him despondently before returning to boring holes in his shoes with his eyes.

"You know, Naruto, there IS an alternative way to become a Genin," whispered Mizuki conspiratorially. He allowed himself a smirk at the hope he saw in the boy's eyes before he continued.

"Here's what you have to do..."

* * *

Naruto had never realised that breaking into the tower was so easy. All he had to do was to carry a bento box and waltz into it under the excuse of delivering it.

It was easy. Almost too easy. However, he was not complaining.

After finding the scroll left haphazardly on the Hokage's chair, it was plain that the Sandaime had been adding more jutsus to it. The man must have been extremely exhausted.

With a shrug and a twinge of guilt, Naruto grabbed the scroll and was flying out the window in a matter of seconds.

* * *

Hours later, the Sandaime had called an emergency assembly of all ready shinobis and kunoichis. Once they had been briefed, the cries for Naruto's blood went up.

"Kill the demon! Demon scum should never have been spared.."  
"Blasted demonspawn should have never been allowed to reside in our village and taint our young ones."  
"Slay the traitor!"  
"How dare he betray our trust by stealing our Forbidden Scroll! We'll make him pay!"

"Calm down. I want the boy alive," frowned the Sandaime. He had been furious with himself for allowing Naruto the opportunity to steal the Forbidden Scroll of Seals. Clearly, he had been too lax. However, he liked the blond prankster. He was amusing, friendly and very optimistic. He certainly did not deserve such death threats.

"Have I made myself clear? I want him ALIVE."

"But-"  
"Yes, sir."  
"Understood, Hokage-sama."

" Scatter!"

After giving the order for the ninjas to move, the Sandaime retrieved his all-seeing orb. Although he could not discern where Naruto was, he would be able to see what he was up to.

"Let's see... What do you want the scroll for, Naruto...?"

* * *

**_Date : After Academy Graduation Test, Night  
Venue : Forest Of Death - Training Ground 44_**

After several long hours after searching for Naruto at all his usual haunts, Iruka, Naruto's chuunin instructor had finally found the blond prankster in a clearing in the forest of death, with a large scroll open in front of him.

"Naruto! What are you doing here? Don't you know this place and the scroll are forbidden?" bellowed the chuunin instructor, with good reason.

The average lifespan of a human in the forest of death was three hours, two in warm weather, one at night. The aptly named forest was full of predators, human or beast. The annual chuunin exams raised the average lifespan, but the amount of idiots who decided to explore and got killed in a minute vastly decreased it.

However...

"Hi!" exclaimed the blond, earning himself a painful smack on the head.

Scowling the blond prankster rubbed his head before beaming a triumphant grin at him. He said, "Iruka-sensei... I've learnt TWO jutsus from this scroll! Now you HAVE to let me become a Genin!"

"Who told you that, Naruto?" inquired Iruka. He found it rather suspicious.

It almost seemed as if Naruto had been put up to it by a third party, instead of doing it as a prank as he had initially thought.

"Mizuki-sensei..." murmured Naruto in confusion. Was Mizuki going to be trouble?

"I see..."

Suddenly, a soft whirring sounded to their left.

"Run Naruto!" shouted Iruka before shoving Naruto out of the way. Throwing five kunais rapidly, he barely managed to knock the fuuma shuriken off its course, and avoid being sheared into two.

Immediately, several kunai were sent at Naruto from a branch above them. They painfully embedded themselves into Iruka, who shielded Naruto with his body.

Looking up, Iruka saw Mizuki on the branch, gloating.

"Mizuki , you traitor..." said Iruka, snarling at the smirking Mizuki.

"Hello, Iruka. Glad to see you have finally shown your true colours, demon-lover. Has it enslaved your mind? We were once both avengers of the people it slayed. Now look at you."

"Stop, Mizuki! Don't do this... Think about your life!"

"Silence! My life? My life is to slay the demon! It has tainted our village long enough! The people will love me for killing the both of you so much, they won't even remember the forbidden scroll of seals! All I have to do is to pry it from your corpses, and its mine! As for you, Iruka... I'm disappointed in you for siding for the demon."

Mizuki pulled out another Fuuma shuriken which he casually twirled before tossing the shuriken at Naruto who had frozen. The sound of metal entering flesh echoed throughout the clearing. Naruto looked up into the anguished face of Iruka as Iruka's blood dripped onto his face.

"Sorry, Naruto... I wasn't able to protect you..." whispered the brunette.

Thought began racing in Naruto's mind, as he watched Iruka's life seep onto the forest floor.

What..

What was...

What was he doing...?

Did he not graduate from the academy...?

Why was he so weak?

Why.. Why...? Why?

Was the techniques from the scroll useless? Was he going to watch the one of the only people to care about him die?

He would not. He could not.

Naruto gathered his resolve to protect his chuunin instructor before trying out a cool new jutsu he had seen in the scroll. He hoped it would do something.

"? no jutsu!"

Suddenly, Naruto felt an enormous spurt of tainted, purplish chakra rise up from within as his features grew more angular, his cornea blackened and his iris became a sickly yellow. His hair whitened and his stance changed. Once a brawler, 'Naruto' now carried himself like a trained assassin, his movements swift and precise, and most of all... deadly.

A blur of orange framed by purple rushed forward, leaving afterimages behind as Mizuki was brutally shredded into strips.

"That was too easy . . ."

"You looking for me?" smirked Mizuki from an opposite branch.

* * *

_Oh gods... Haven't touched this in quite a while. I also noticed a number of mistakes I made._

_Notes:_

_1. hint: "9B" - Yes, the shadowy figure was REAL creative...  
__2. Naruto could not read the jutsu so he fumbled it._

_the Hidden leaf village or Konohagakure no Sato, is in a period of recovery and peace. After the second Shinobi War which made heroes like the legendary Sannin and marked the rise of Konoha's Yellow Flash who is the Yondame Hokage, one of the legendary Sannin defected from Konoha due to illegal human experimentation. The Sannin ,who had an obsession with snakes and jutsus, was personally chased out by his disappointed teacher, the Sandaime Hokage, also known as Sarutobi._

_After the nine-tailed demon fox's attack of twelve years ago in which more than half of Konoha's ninjas perished including the Yondaime, the village harboured a deep-seated and irrational hatred of the jinchuuriki, Uzumaki Naruto. Despite him being the only thing preventing the second coming of Kyuubi, the Sandaime had to impose a law preventing the villagers and ninjas from assassinating or harming Naruto in any way. Sadly, the villagers frequently infringe on this law._

_People: Iruka_

_The most-popular chuunin instructor at the Ninja academy, he often mantains a close bond with his students. His fighting style is closely linked with his firm foundation of the basics. He lost his parents to Kyuubi, hence his initial wariness towards the jinchuuriki. However, he soon realised the prisoner was not the warden and made a genuine effort to help Naruto._

_People: Mizuki_

_A sleeper agent of Orochimaru, the snake sannin, Mizuki was also a teammate of Anko under Orochimaru. He also has a firm grasp of the basics, although he barely made chuunin._

_Jutsu:? no jutsu_

_A high-end S-ranked jutsu. It awakens the subconscious mind which often takes form of a single entity. Once a Haruno family jutsu, it was deemed forbidden by the Hokage after the new ANBU commander tested it out. Entities of ninjas who hold themselves back greatly are considerably stronger than those who do not. This is because the held-back reflexes, jutsus, and other related skills are stored in the subconscious, where it cannot be accessed by the conscious mind, and is 'soaked' up by the entity. A thing to note about this jutsu is that suppressed feelings also affect the entity greatly, with negative feelings having more power than positive feelings. Extremely powerful entities are able to take over their hosts entirely while extremely skilled hosts are able to assimilate their entities into themselves, with the new being of a cross between the two. The assimilation process is unknown, but rumours of a new organisation consisting of powerful entities who have taken over their hosts abound..._


	2. Reprieve

Disclaimer: I own nothing... Naruto belongs to Masashi Kishimoto

* * *

**_Date : After Academy Graduation Test, Night  
Venue : Forest of Death - Training Ground 44_**

Mizuki had to cut off his taunt midway as a streak of orange rushed him quickly, faster than expected. Faintly, he registered an immense killing intent backed by copious amounts of chakra.

The first punch was ground-shattering. Unfortunately, Mizuki had the presence of mind to get some distance after noting the blond's immense speed. Where he once stood was a crater the size of the blond's hand.

'I have to get serious...' thought Mizuki as he drew two fuuma shuriken. Condensing the four blades of the large shurikens, he wielded them expertly like dual kodachis.

"Come, boy, while the night is young."

Mizuki immediately regretted it.

The white-blond's movements were very erratic, but strangely fluid. There were no additional movements beyond what was needed to get him to his destination, and Mizuki found nothing that telegraphed his intentions. For all he knew, the blond could be preparing to punch instead of kick.

He had no idea.

As the blond rushed straight at him, Mizuki tensed. Before the blond ran past him.

'Huh?' pondered Mizuki faintly before his world erupted in pain. He faintly registered his left arm on the ground, twitching spasmodically. Then, his head joined his severed limb.

* * *

_**Date : After Academy Graduation Test, Night  
**__**Venue : Forest Of Death - Training Ground 44**_

Iruka stared at the blond as shock rendered him speechless.

"N-Naruto? B-But wh-what was t-that?"

Instead of answering his question, Naruto stalked towards Iruka, steadily covering the ground between them. Slowly, a smirk formed on Naruto's face as he licked the bloodied kunai that ended one of his instructor's life.

'He is coming closer... He is dangerous... He killed Mizuki so easily... Is he coming for me?' thought Iruka.

As if to affirm Iruka's thoughts, Naruto closed his fist firmly around Iruka's neck and dragged him to his feet.

Slowly but surely, Naruto began to asphyxiate his chuunin instructor, wearing an insane smirk.

_**

* * *

**_

**Date : After Academy Graduation Test, Night**  
_**Venue : Hokage Tower**_

"I must stop this! That fool! Forbidden jutsus are forbidden for a reason!" cursed the Sandaime.

Adorning his battle-worn armour, the Sandaime resolved to stop 'Naruto'...

_**

* * *

**_

**Date : After Academy Graduation Test, Night**  
_**Venue : Forest Of Death - Training Ground 44**_

Just as Iruka slipped into unconsciousness, a swirl of leaves heralded the arrival of the Sandaime clad in his battle garb.

As he brutally backhanded the blond away from his fallen instructor, he looked at the orange-wearing ninja with wariness. He was unsure of Naruto's capabilities.

He would just have to find out. A small part of him registered his thoughts' similarity to Orochimaru's.

"_What's the matter, old man? Can't take the heat?"_

Before 'Naruto' had completed the sentence, he and the Sandaime had already begun a furious taijutsu battle.(1)

Suddenly, the purple chakra faltered for a bit. 'Naruto' frowned for a bit before the taijutsu fight resumed with greater intensity._**

* * *

**_

**Date : After Academy Graduation Test, Night**  
_**Venue : Naruto's mind**_

Naruto glared at his look-alike in utter hatred as his look-alike smirked down at him, grinding him into the ground with one foot. Having exhausted every strategy his prankster mind could concoct and every jutsu he could do, he was fast running out of options.

Taijutsu was no go. His brawling could not compare to who he called 'the Other' whose fast, precise and deadly dance decimated his strategies with absurd ease..

And his jutsus... He had even desperately tried a **Sexy no jutsu : Sakura style(1)**, to which his opponent had only sweatdropped!

Despite his best efforts so far, his look-alike had not even broken a sweat. Suddenly, his world swam as his tormentor wrested control of his mind. Gasping as thoughts of innocent people being massacred by 'Naruto' assaulted his psyche, Naruto silenced the genjutsu with a tremendous burst of chakra. Flipping his nemesis off, Naruto then struggled to rise before collapsing in his immense exhaustion.

"_Is that all you've got, weakling? How utterly pathetic. I will give you three to four years to prepare yourself. At the end of that period, we will fight for dominance of this body, Naruto. Until next time...get stronger or else.. Maybe your furry tenant could put up a better fight?"_ pondered 'Naruto' as he faded away like leaves in the wind...

* * *

**_Venue : Forest Of Death - Training Ground 44  
Date : After Academy Graduation Test, Night_**

The Sandaime was very perplexed. 'Naruto' had put up a fight beyond his normal capabilities and had even come close to dealing some serious damage. Halfway through the fight though, he had smiled a creepy smile, before the purple chakra subsided. Naruto then promptly collapsed.

Sighing as he snapped out of his thoughts, the Sandaime quickly signed for some medic nins for Iruka, feeling positively ancient as he grabbed the forbidden scroll and disappeared in a puff of smoke.

* * *

_**Venue : Hyuuga compound  
**_**_Date : Day after incident_**

Hyuuga Hiashi was utterly displeased, to say the least. The Sandaime had ordered him to take a look at the filthy scum his daughter had a crush on.

Despite knowing the brat was no demon, Hiashi detested the blond's common background.

Sighing, he trudged towards the hospital where heavy pulses of youki were emanating...

* * *

**_Venue : Hokage Tower  
Date : Day after incident_**

"Sandaime-sama! Hiashi has completed the examination of the d- I mean brat!"

Frowning at the clerk, he quietly pondered what the results might be.

* * *

**_Venue : Hokage Tower  
Date : Day after incident_**

"So you're telling me Naruto has three types of chakra within him?"

"Affirmative. He has the normal chakra, a red chakra similar to that of Kyuubi, as well as a hair-raising purplish chakra. The red and purple chakra seem to be battling each other to a stalemate as of this moment," paused Hiashi for air.

"However, the blue chakra which is incredibly low right now, suppresses the red chakra and may tilt the balance in favor of the vile purple chakra once replenished," finished Hiashi as he reported Naruto's unique condition to the Sandaime.

* * *

**_Venue: Naruto's mind  
Date : Day after incident_**

Naruto cowered in fear as Kyuubi battled with the Other inside his cage. Waves of vile killing intent clashed with waves of youki as the two titans clashed for supremacy.

One particularly powerful wave of killing intent fueled by a spike of chakra caused Naruto's bladder to nearly lose its content.

One was noisy whereas the other was silent as the grave. The Other happily spouted long strings of vulgarities whereas Kyuubi yelped, growled, snarled and howled, without uttering a single intelligible word.

Although Kyuubi's chakra was extremely potent, and in near-limitless quantities compared to what 'the Other' possessed, the vile purple chakra easily subjugated the red chakra, converting it to a much deeper red. (2)

Slowly but surely, the Other was winning. Unwilling to have his host die of terror, Kyuubi used half of his remaining strength to banish his opponent into the twisting corridors, before erecting a barrier around his cage. (3)

Spent and tired, the nine-tailed fox curled up into a ball and went to sleep.

After what seemed like an eternity, once he was sure it was safe, Naruto slowly inched his way to the exit.

* * *

_**Venue: Ninja Academy  
Date: Two Days after incident, Team Delegation Day**_

Uchiha Sasuke was quietly doing his favourite thing when his 'dobe' sense began tingling. Ceasing his brooding, he turned around to see a certain blond prankster. Frowning, he glowered at the blond before asking him, "What are you doing here, dobe? Didn't you **fail**? Get lost, this is only for **Genins**, dobe." (4)

"I passed, asshole," snapped Naruto before plonking down on the chair next to Sasuke. The blond ignored the raven-haired, onyx-eyed last Uchiha as he began to mentally review the Bunshin no jutsu. Recalling the afterimages during the massacre of Mizuki, he frowned before something clicked in his mind.

Working on his hypothesis, Naruto got over to the front of the class before performing the other forbidden jutsu he had gleaned from the scroll. Unlike the other kinjutsu, he had bothered reading the fine print about this one and was seriously hoping he could replicate the feat the Other had done with bunshins.

"Kage bunshin no jutsu!"

Gathering his shadow clones, Naruto quickly briefed them on his hypothesis. Apparently, the Other had been able to use bunshins on a subconscious level so much so that they interfered with the enemy's perception and seemed like afterimages. Soon, the classroom was filled with cries of "Bunshin no jutsu", puffs of smoke and of course, orange-wearing, blond genins.

Entering the room, Iruka froze for a moment before eyeing Naruto suspiciously as he prepared to announce the genins' teams.

"Alright, settle down," directed Iruka towards the two fangirls of Sasuke, Haruno Sakura and Yamanaka Ino . "As you know, or **SHOULD **know," Iruka glared at the sleeping genius, Shikamaru as well as the pleasantly plump Akimichi Chouji who was feverishly devouring potato crisps.

"Genins are put in teams of three, supervised by one jounin," continued Iruka as he frowned at the Uchiha.

"Teams are assigned roles and numbers that suit those roles. Without further ado, I'll now tell you your teams. You are to await your jounin sensei's arrival and then follow their instructions. We have not have had a team 1 to 6 for sometime. Team 7 consists of Uzumaki Naruto, Haruno Sakura," Iruka was interrupted by a groan from the pink-haired kunoichi.

"And Uchiha Sasuke," Iruka was interrupted yet again by a squeal from the pink-haired kunoichi and a moan from Naruto, "Your jounin sensei is Hatake Kakashi."

"Team 8 is Aburame Shino, Hyuuga Hinata as well as Inuzuka Kiba. Your jounin instructor is Yuuhi Kurenai."

"Team 10 is the tried-and-true trio, the Ino-Shika-Cho. Your jounin instructor is Sarutobi Asuma."

* * *

**_Venue: Ninja Academy Rooftop  
Date: Team Delegation Day_**

All three rookie genins glared daggers at their jounin sensei who had been extremely late.

"Well, tell me your likes, dislikes, hobbies, stuff like that."

"Erm... Kakashi-sensei, why don't you go first?"

"Hrm... I am Hatake Kakashi... My likes are... I dislike many things... My dreams are none of your business... I have many hobbies."

All three genins sighed in unison as they realised that their sensei had avoided giving any information to them at all.

Kakashi then motionlessly pointed at Sasuke who proclaimed himself as an 'avenger' while Sakura listen, starry-eyed.

Then without any signal, Sakura basically squealed while looking at Sasuke with lust. When it was Naruto's turn...

"I am Uzumaki Naruto, future Hokage of Konoha! My likes are ramen, cool jutsus and Sandaime-ojisan! I dislike the Other, the three minutes for ramen to cook, and Sasuke-teme. My dream is to become Hokage one day but first, _I need to defeat the Other_."

Inwardly, Kakashi frowned as he sighed to himself, 'I have two avengers, and a fangirl. Joy.'

"Okay Team Seven, you're done for the day. Meet at training ground three for your survival test. Don't eat or you'll puke," beamed Kakashi before disappearing in a swirl of leaves, leaving three worried genins to worry themselves sick.

Oh, yes. He was evil.

* * *

**_Venue: Training ground three  
_Date: Day of Genin survival tests**

Naruto met Sakura and Sasuke at the training ground. Having nothing to do, he tried to strike up a decent conversation, to no avail. Sasuke ignored the other two whereas Sakura only had eyes for her 'Sasuke-kun'.

Frustrated, Naruto continued working on his bunshins.

Time slowed to a crawl as Team Seven waited for their tardy sensei. After two hours had passed, Naruto had had enough. Producing a large number of shadow clones, the Narutos then shouted at the top of their lungs for Kakashi to arrive. Needless to say, he had appeared soon after the outburst.

"Sorry, I was lost on the road of life," he deadpanned.

The survival test was to determine who returned to the academy and who did not. Those who were unable to get a bell from the masked, silver-haired jounin would return to the academy, and there were only two bells for the three genins. To make things worse, there was a time limit.

At the count of three, the genins scattered into the forest. All, except a certain blond. Standing stoicly, he demanded a fight as Kakashi sweatdropped before reaching towards his weapons pouch.

Tensing, Naruto could not help but facefault when Kakashi brought out an orange book and began to read it voraciously. Growling, he made multiple shadow clones as well as a silent lone shadow clone. Kakashi reached behind him and backhanded the shadow clone with little to no effort at all while the other clones rushed him. Startled by a puff of smoke, he looked down to see a stone near him transform into Naruto who attempted to catch him with a sloppy uppercut.

Getting behind Naruto, he snapped his neck with a sharp twist and returned to his book when the smoke cleared, revealing no one in sight.

Sakura had been frantically searching for her 'Sasuke-kun'. To her, the most important thing was to find her love and then find some way to get two bells for the couple. She was so preoccupied with her fantasy that she did not notice a masked jounin sneak up behind her and knock her out.

Sighing, Kakashi dispelled his shadow clone and began to look for Sasuke. Unlike with Naruto, he knew that he could not afford to read his precious while engaging Sasuke. Suddenly, he spotted a multitude of shurikens in his peripheral vision.

Sasuke was annoyed. Kakashi had escaped his shuriken flurry with a simple substitution jutsu. With his location compromised, he hastily prepared some traps for the cyclops.

Despite a good effort, Kakashi easily incapacitated Sasuke with superior experience and fighting prowess. Although he was slightly caught off-guard by the grand fireball technique Sasuke had spewed at him, Sasuke had presented little difficulty.

Leaving Sasuke buried in the earth, Kakashi went to look for the last conscious member of Team Seven. He found the blond in the clearing, smirking and extremely fatigued. Raising an eyebrow, he observed the orange-wearing genin. "You're just weird, aren't you..." deadpanned Kakashi as he sweatdropped.

Watching as the genin formed the seals for a substitution technique, he was shocked as he felt the bells at his belt being replaced with rocks which were originally on either side of the blond. Weighed down momentarily with the rocks, Kakashi watched as Naruto dashed off.

Grinning, Naruto sprinted off in triumph, headed towards where he knew his clones had dragged his teammates to. Pressing a bell into each of their hands, he used almost all his remaining chakra to form clones to protect his friends. Frowning as he felt a burning sensation on his neck slowly spread (6), he forced back a scream as he turned to face Kakashi.

Then, the world went black. Kakashi was surprised. Naruto had been the one responsible for the team's passing. The substitution had been nothing short of amazing. Sighing, he brought the three teammates to the hospital to get checked for any injuries.

* * *

Phew...

Notes:

(1) The Sandaime is holding back greatly. That's why no ninjutsu or genjutsu was used.

(2) Naruto was very desperate. He has never seen Sakura naked; he is just guessing. Also, the most attractive person to him is Sakura.

(3) This means the Other is able to transform Kyuubi's chakra into a form he can use.

(4) Naruto is hyperventiliating. Humans were never meant to withstand twice the killing intent of beings of Kyuubi's level

(5) Sasuke's nickname for Naruto is dobe. It basically means 'dead-last' and 'loser'

(6) He has a 'tattoo' there.

* * *

**People: Sandaime**

Sarutobi is known as the 'God of Shinobi' or the 'Professor'. Once extremely powerful in his prime, age has caused his taijutsu capabilities and reflexes to slow considerably. However, his ninjutsu is no pushover. He taught the Densetsu no Sannin. After the attack, Sarutobi was still fit enough for a second term after his successor died. His fighting styles uses combinations from his vast library of jutsus.

* * *

**People: Uchiha Sasuke**

The only survivor of the Uchiha massacre. He aspires to kill his brother, Itachi, who massacred all the Uchihas in one night, and torturing Sasuke with a powerful genjutsu. The last Uchiha is a prodigy, not unlike his brother, but his power is dwarfed considerably compared to the missing-nin.

* * *

**People: Hatake Kakashi**

He was once the ANBU commander. His father, Hatake Sakumo, Konoha's White Fang, committed seppuku after a failed mission where he abandoned the mission to save a friend. Kakashi used to despise his father, before losing a friend, Uchiha Obito, during a mission. He now prescribes to the motto: In the ninja world, those who do not follow the rules are trash, but those who abandon their friends are worse than trash. He honors his friend by visiting the memorial stone before any mission, thus being late. His other teammate Rin implanted Obito's sharingan into him, before requesting leave for an indefinite amount of time...

He was the only survivor of ANBU squad eight, following a disastrous incursion into Orochimaru's lair, during which the snake sannin escaped. During that incident, the teammates never thought of teaming up against their individual opponents. He suspected correctly that each opponent was designed to take down the corresponding ANBU member. Had they swapped...

* * *

**People: Haruno Sakura**

She is a fangirl of Sasuke with incredibly low chakra reserves and incredible chakra control. Her family has few ninjas, due to the pink hair of all Harunos that impedes stealth. However, Harunos are remarkable medic nins and frontline fighters due to their family jutsu that is performed in secret...

* * *

**People : The Other**

Subconscious entities are rarely as prominent, bloodthirsty or have a seperate chakra as potent as The Other. The Other's chakra is especially tainted although this is perhaps linked to the spiral-like seal on Naruto's neck.The Other's rage stems from Naruto's suppressed feelings behind the 'mask' of his which has faltered recently. A thing to note is The Other is remarkably powerful compared to other entities, perhaps due to the 'host'. Extremely powerful entities have been to take over their hosts, with the most prominent case being Uchiha Itachi, newly instated ANBU commander-gone wrong. Weaker entities often act as a moral compass for their hosts. Some extremely skilled hosts have been known to dramatically increase their skills via fusing with their entities.


	3. Resurgence

Disclaimer: I own nothing. Masashi Kishimoto owns Naruto.

_**

* * *

Date : Day after Genin survival tests  
**__**Venue : Hokage Tower**_

The Sandaime silenced the jounins with a quiet cough. Seriously, were they jounin, the elite of ninjas, or mere school children fresh out of the academy? The racket was seriously grating on his nerves.

Then, he broke the resultant silence. "Jounins, declare the passing or failing of the teams you were assigned to in the aftermath of the Genin tests."

"Yuuhi Kurenai. Team 8 passed," said Kurenai, before relating to them the teamwork displayed by the trio

"Aburame Shino had been very logical, convincing Inuzuka Kiba that teamwork was the key. Hyuuga Hinata was hesitant, but after a while, the trio banded together for a combined assault. Impressive, but nothing out of the mold," commented the red-eyed kunoichi.

"Of the three, which do you think is the best ninja?" asked the Sandaime.

"Aburame Shino, easily. The other two had too much, or lacked confidence respectively."

"Next."

"Sarutobi Asuma. Team 10 also passed," smirked Asuma as he lit another cigar.

"Nara Shikamaru devised a brilliant strategy that might have worked if he had more information about my capabilities, after being galvanised by Yamanaka Ino. Akimichi Chouji readily listened to the Nara's instructions, and their strategy went as well as could be hoped for."

"How was the Nara's performance?" inquired the Sandaime.

"Spectacular. He is going to be one of our best strategists."

"I see. Your nominations will be noted when it is time to search for potential chuunins. Now, I'm sure there are no more passes, so..."

The Sandaime was about to adjourn the meeting before he was interrupted by a certain ex-ANBU commander.

"Team 7 passed," drawled the cyclopean, silver-haired Kakashi reluctantly, to gasps throughout the room.

Kakashi had never passed a team before. The apocalypse was coming.

"Sasuke was skilled for a genin, but arrogant. Sakura was just another fan girl," commented the cyclops with much distaste. The silence was palpable.

'How?' was on everybody's tongue as they glared at the orange book reading jounin for a lack of elaboration.

"Naruto. He managed to get a rough idea of my abilities using clones before retreating. After I defeated his teammates, he had clones drag them to a common location. After I found him, he used the substitution technique to substitute my bells with rocks. Needless to say, I was impressed. Then, he pressed each bell into his unconscious teammates hands before making many shadow clones to prepare for me. He is the best among them from my observations. He shows a good grasp of basic strategy, and knows how to weigh risks."

"Despite my underestimating him, I still sneaked up on him and knocked him out, however." deadpanned the shinobi in an attempt to salvage his reputation.

"There's something bothering me though-" frowned Kakashi.

"Which is?" inquired the Sandaime.

"He has something resembling a cursed seal on him... and I saw it spread just a little as I knocked him out..."

The Sandaime dismissed the jounins before nervously pondering what implications this might have on Naruto. Time would tell.

_**

* * *

Date : Two days after Genin survival tests  
**__**Venue : Streets of Konoha**_

"Come back here, you!" shouted Naruto as he rushed recklessly after a feline.

Yet another pointless cat capture.

Behind, Sasuke was brooding as usual, while Sakura stared at the Uchiha with starry eyes.

It was pointless to try. Why bother? Only Naruto mustered the enthusiasm required to capture the feline escape-specialist.

After a long chase, Naruto caught the cat by the scruff of its neck and held it at arms length while it tried to mangle him horribly. Tossing the kitty to Sakura whom it immediately began cuddling, Team 7 headed back to the Hokage Tower to complete their mission.

* * *

_**Date : Two weeks after Genin survival tests  
**__**Venue : Hokage Tower**_

"Hello, Team 7. Now, what would your next mission be? Painting a fence while watching the spectacular sight of paint drying, fixing a door so the residents of Konoha may sleep soundly, or weeding a garden so as to keep those deadly weeds out of our food?" asked the Sandaime, his words dripping with sarcasm. This was not the Sandaime's best day.

"No, oji-san! I want something harder! We've already done 50 D-class missions!" fumed a pouting Naruto who did not catch on, who then proceeded to sweat buckets after a particularly venomous glare shot at him by his pink-haired kunoichi.

Sighing, the Sandaime beckoned for the guest to enter the room. "This is Tazuna, a bridge builder from Wave. Your mission is to escort him back to Wave and protect him."

"Che, a bunch of snot-nosed brats. Are you sure they are capable? The short one looks dumb," said Tazuna, before gulping down some sake. The bridge builder picked his nose and flicked the contents at a revolted blond.

"Why, you! I'll **KILL YOU**!" screamed Naruto as he was held back by his teammates and teacher. Strangely though, he was dragging all of them along.

_**

* * *

Date : Two days after Genin survival tests, first day of mission to Wave  
**__**Venue : Forests surrounding Konoha, en route to Wave.**_

It was a lloonngg journey. Kakashi was beginning to feel the makings of a migraine as his subordinates argued constantly with Tazuna all the time, 24/7.

'Don't they ever rest? No siree, Kakashi annoyance service never stops.'

Wait...

'What is a puddle doing in the middle of this heat? No rain has fallen in the region for quite a while. And was that a ninja headband's outline in the puddle?' thought Kakashi absently.

As they passed, he made sure to tread on the puddle and was rewarded with a suspicious muffled "Oof!".

Glaring daggers at the cyclops, two ninjas emerged from the puddle and rushed the jounin.

The genin and their charge were too slow to react as the missing-nins, as marked by the scratch on their forehead-protector, wrapped Kakashi in the chain connecting their large gauntlets and shredded him to bits.

"One down!" bellowed the taller missing nin in triumph.

Next, the missing-nins rushed the nearest target who happened to be Naruto who seemed to have frozen in fear.

Sasuke intercepted the missing-nins by catching their chain and pinning it to a tree with a shuriken and a kunai.The missing-nins were then knocked out by a nonchalant Kakashi, who had apparently escaped via substitution, much to the relief of a pink-haired kunoichi.

"Meizu and Goizu... the Demon Brothers... You don't see that everyday..." deadpanned the copy-nin.

A howl of agony came from the prone Naruto as he clutched his neck. They looked at him in concern as he rolled about, crying tears of a red liquid. They did a double-take when they noticed the liquid was _blood_. (1) Had the missing nins hit him with something?

Grabbing Naruto, the genins, jounin and bridge builder rushed towards their transport.

Suddenly, a large cleaver came rushing towards them. Sasuke forced a blushing Sakura down while Kakashi dropped Naruto and forced Tazuna to duck.

On the cleaver stood a man whose face was bandaged. Wearing a lopsided forehead-protector, he smirked as Kakashi raised his own forehead-protector to reveal a _Sharingan_.

Sasuke froze as his sensei revealed a bloodline only members of the Uchiha clan possessed. Even then, Sasuke was the only survivor of the Uchiha massacre.

"The Sharingan so early, Copy-ninja? I'm honored."

Pulling the cleaver out of the tree easily, Zabuza,who was also known as the demon of the hidden mist, performed the seals for the Hidden Mist technique.

A thick mist quickly rolled in as Zabuza threw his voice to prevent him from being found.

"_Eight targets_, _Throat. Spinal Column. Lungs. Liver. The Jugular Vein. Subclavian Artery. Kidney. Heart. Pick the one you wish to lose."_

Sasuke and Sakura were beyond terrified. The mist hid the unknown while blood stained the very ground they stood. The killing intent in the air was beyond any they had ever encountered before.

'What is this? This feeling, the feeling of your very life in the hands of a master assassin... I can't take this anymore... I've gotta break free!' thought Sasuke as his hands inched towards a very sharp and deadly kunai(2)... just before he spotted two figures standing atop the lake.

"Don't worry. I'll protect you with my life if needed," assured Kakash...

...just before he was ripped into two with a large cleaver.

The pieces lost their structure and became water.

"What a powerful doujutsu... the Sharingan is capable of casting genjutsus, and dispeling them as well as reading the opponent's movements and copying their jutsus... Kakashi... you copied the water clone technique while you were talking to the whelps, didn't you?" mused Zabuza before he too, was slit in the throat.

The Zabuzas and Kakashi slowly killed each other until only one Zabuza was left. Kakashi frowned as the water he was hiding in became very dense and nigh-impossible to move in...

Zabuza grinned triumphantly as he completed the Water Prison technique.

Being trapped in a prison, that he knew was impossible to break as long as the user kept a hand in the prison and was near a water source, Kakashi shouted for the two genins to grab Naruto and Tazuna and run...

...before realising all they heard and saw were bubbles from his mouth.

Zabuza formed a water clone who started to stalk towards the genins surrounding Tazuna.

The Zabuza clone frowned as the orange-wearing brat struggled to his feet and formed the Ram handseal.

Five shadow clones surrounded Tazuna while another five surrounded their maker.

Naruto whispered his impromptu plan to his makeshift subordinates, and as one, they threw kunais towards the real Zabuza.

Zabuza snickered as all the kunais missed, before being startled when the kunais turned into Narutos who threw another five kunais... who turned into Narutos when they missed and began the circle again.

Wincing as a kunai came close to a certain part of the male anatomy, Zabuza detached himself from the prison trapping Kakashi and prepared to fight the jounin once more.

As Kakashi seemed to mimic his every action, Zabuza became very frustrated. Forming seals for the Water Dragon Jutsu, both fighters completed the long sequence of seals at the same time.

Rushing forwards, kunai met cleaver in a shower of sparks. Breaking apart, Zabuza began random movements to see how Kakashi was doing them at the same time.

"I'll stop your copying once and for all!" proclaimed Zabuza as he launched into another sequence of handseals for the Grand Waterfall jutsu. Glaring behind the copy-nin who was also doing the jutsu, his handseals faltered when he saw... himself?

"Grand Waterfall technique!" said Kakashi as the tomoes in his Sharingan spun...

The water in the lake swept Zabuza away as he collided painfully with a tree and four kunais thrown by Kakashi tore tendon and muscle and rendered his limbs useless.

Suddenly, needles embedded themselves into Zabuza's neck as a ninja around Naruto's age jumped down to get Zabuza. Introducing himself as a hunter nin, he claimed to be assigned to assassinate the missing-nin Zabuza. He then grabbed Zabuza and fled.

Faintly noting that the battle was over, Kakashi swayed on the spot dizzily. Why was the world spinning?

Kakashi promptly collapsed as his Sharingan placed more strain on his non-Uchiha body than he could take.

Exchanging concerned looks, Tazuna and the genins carried the unconscious Kakashi to Tazuna's house.

_**

* * *

Date : Second day of mission to Wave  
**__**Venue : Tazuna's house, Land of Wave**_

As soon as Kakashi came to, he immediately notified the genins that Zabuza was not dead, and most likely had a skilled ally.

Upon their confused looks, he explained that hunter-nins were supposed to decapitate the target's body and burn the rest of it there and then.

Despite Zabuza's build, the hunter-nin had decided to carry the much larger Zabuza away. Also, in order to impersonate a hunter-nin, Zabuza's ally most likely had sufficient knowledge to put targets into a death-like trance.

As the genins nodded, having agreed with his reasoning thus far, Kakashi decided to train them as he knew that the genins were far too weak to face off with the false hunter-nin.

He told them to follow him to a clearing in the woods.

_**

* * *

Date: Second day of mission to Wave  
**__**Venue: Forest clearing in Wave**_

"Sensei... what are we going to do here?" asked a very confused Sakura.

Kakashi smiled before hobbling up the tree.

"This. Focus chakra to your feet in order to climb the tree. Too much chakra and you'll blast off. Too little and you won't stick. Good luck," said Kakashi before throwing three kunai to their feet and resting on a large boulder. He knew his brief explanation would be unsatisfactory, and that the genins had to rely on teamwork to accomplish the feats.

Unsurprisingly, Naruto had little success in this chakra control exercise. Sasuke did a little better whereas Sakura scaled the tree in her first go.

Kakashi nodded mentally to him as he noted to himself that Naruto had at least 6 times his chakra easily(3).

Sasuke had above average chakra capacities. Sakura apparently had so little chakra that she could not scale the tree a second time without passing out whereas Naruto frequently blasted off and Sasuke often fell off.

Soon, Kakashi told Sakura to go guard Tazuna while the other two practiced. Once the pink-haired kunoichi and the silver-haired shinobi were gone, Naruto made several shadow clones and told them to practice the tree-climbing exercise.

Hopefully, the old saying would be of use, that two heads were better than one. Naruto hoped that his clones could shed some light on how to complete the exercise.

He was snapped out of his musings by the burning sensation on his neck. It had spread yet again. It was getting annoying.

_**

* * *

Date : Day of Zabuza's return, Mission to Wave  
**__**Venue: Tazuna's house**_

Naruto woke up with a start. He had overslept.

By now, Naruto had realized the burning sensations were related to his tattoo. This weird epiphany did little to jolt him awake.

Wait...

Overslept?

Aw...

Groggily, he stumbled downstairs when he heard a cry for help. Rushing out, he saw two thugs holding Tsunami, Tazuna's daughter hostage while Inari, her son was out cold. Forming seals for a substitution, he quietly switched himself for Tsunami into the thugs' grips before drawing two kunais and efficiently slit the thugs' throats.

'Wow... my first kills. Big deal...' mentally shrugged Naruto.

Sighing, he began readying himself for an experimental use for the substitution technique, as he began the familiar sequence.

"Rescue Tazuna jutsu!"

_**

* * *

Date : Day of Zabuza's return, Mission to Wave  
**__**Venue: Tazuna's bridge**_

Tazuna was cowering behind the pink-haired kunoichi when suddenly, everybody felt a LARGE spike of chakra(4)

When he recovered from the disorientation, he found himself staring at his daughter, who gave him a hug. Five shadow clones surrounded the family so as to protect them from further threats.

Sakura was similarly disorientated as she found herself next to Tazuna, with a note from Naruto in her hand. She pulled out a kunai and began protecting the family as instructed by the note.

Sasuke was annoyed. He had started off well, managing to match the hunter-nin's speed.

However, the opponent had made a bunch of mirrors and disappeared into them. Although he had activated his sharingan, Sasuke knew he was nowhere near being able to find his opponent, whose speed had drastically increased. To make things worse, the dobe had just walked into the trap.

'Idiot.'

Sasuke was so engrossed in his thoughts, he did not even notice a needle embed itself into his neck. Time slowed to a crawl when Naruto saw his rival, and teammate fall.

"No!"

_**

* * *

Date : Day of Zabuza's return, Mission to Wave  
**__**Venue: Naruto's mind**_

"Oi, fox! Give me some chakra!" demanded Naruto. However, what he saw scared him immensely. In the Kyuubi's cage, sat the Other. Kyuubi was nowhere to be seen.

The lock was open.

"_Foolish weakling. Ask and you will receive."_

_**

* * *

Date : Day of Zabuza's return, Mission to Wave  
**__**Venue: Tazuna's bridge**_

Naruto's cry was the only warning the ninjas had before The Other was back.(5)

With a vicious shove, the Other shunted Naruto's consciousness into the depths of his mind.

Immediately, Naruto's cornea became black while the pupils emanated a eerie yellow glow. His hair became white as his stance changed considerably. What was once that of a brawler became that of an assassin, swift, ruthless and deadly, and leaving afterimages continuously.

On his neck, the tattoo was gone. It had shifted itself to the seal on his stomach that contained the Kyuubi.

"_What weaklings... I'll crush you ALL! Hrm... I'll start with the prissy boy."_

Haku saw many orange-wearing blond afterimages rushing towards him before he knew no more, his heart casually impaled by the transformed entity with a kunai.

Upon witnessing the death of his one-time protege and secretly cherished ally, the fight seemed to drain out of Momochi Zabuza.

Zabuza tried to fend off the orange-wearing brat half-heartedly but the blond shattered his sword easily and plunged his kunai into his chest.

Gatou, who had just arrived, was furious. A large portion of his finances had been siphoned with an unknown corporations, leaving him only enough to hire common thugs and ruffians.

Thus, he immediately commanded them to attack upon arrival at the bridge.

Gatou and his thugs had chosen the wrong time to appear. The numerous thugs were slaughtered and their bodies fell like weed before a thresher.

Gatou was ripped into two as 'Naruto' revelled in the massacre.

As the last thug fell, a large burst of chakra came from the blond.

The blackish colouration bled out of his eyes even as pigment returned to his hair. Looking around with dead eyes at the carnage around him as well as the blood staining his hands, Naruto met his sensei's eyes in hesitation before disappearing with a puff of smoke (6), tears streaming freely down his cheeks...

Kakashi grabbed the unconscious Uchiha before leaving the area in a swirl of leaves. As a favour to the oft-neglected blond, he decided that he would leave this turn of events out of his mission report.

Little did he know there would be no report.

* * *

Developments, developments... I need to get these ideas out of my head.

Notes:

(1) Naruto has awakened one of his bloodlines. He has not used it yet though, so they did not notice anything other than the pain and the tears. The tears of blood was due to Naruto's eyes changing their genetic structure. The trigger is unknown as of yet.

(2) At last! Sasuke's emo tendencies revealed!

(3) The canon Naruto had about 2 to 3 times Kakashi's chakra capacity. The BIG difference is due to the Other's effect on Kyuubi's chakra. More on this later.

(4) The chakra expended to make the jutsu work long-range is tremendous.

(5) The chakra needed was so much that he had to draw on some of the Kyuubi's chakra... which was how the Other was able to momentarily take over his body. Chakra depletion. 'Nuff said.

(6) This was a substitution used as a form of travel

* * *

Advanced Notes:

(1) Naruto does not know how to activate his doujutsu.

(2) I was kidding...

(3,4,5) The seal was made for Kyuubi. If Naruto went into his mindscape, he would see a Kyuubi in the cage, and The Other roaming **_freely_** outside. The Other has defeated Kyuubi. All of Kyuubi's chakra now belongs to The Other. This means that if Naruto runs low, The Other can easily take over his body as The Other is not affected by the seal, and Naruto's chakra is the only thing holding The Other back The seal merely acts as an amplifier so that Naruto's chakra does NOT become overwhelmed.

* * *

**Place: Wave**

Once a properous land, Wave has fallen on hard times. Gatou, a rich but cruel businessman has taken over. Imposing strict taxes, he has a monopoly on the trade of Wave. Kaiza, widely regarded as the Wave's hero, was brutally tortured and publicly executed by Gatou's men.

* * *

**People: Kurenai**

Known as the 'Ice Queen of Konoha', she is an accomplished Genjutsu specialist. Specialising in intricate illusions, her ninjutsu and taijutsu are adequate at best.

* * *

**People: Asuma**

The son of the Sandaime Hokage, he tries to live up to his father's reputation. A estrangement results in them treating each other like acquaintances. He uses his trench knives together with his mastery of wind chakra to deadly effects.

* * *

**People: Zabuza**

One of the Seven Swordsmen of Mist, the seven were exiled from Mist for an failed assassination of the Mizukage. The assassination almost worked, if not for a mysterious figure. Zabuza uses his sword for silent killing in the mist he produces. If it fails, he falls back on Water ninjutsus. He used to be the head of the ANBU for assassination in Mist.

* * *

**People: Haku**

Haku is a member of a clan of people who can use upper-end Ice jutsus. This young prodigy of his clan is often mocked for his girlish looks, and had a hard childhood. Almost killed by his father due to the fear of bloodlines in the Mist, he spent sometime begging before latching onto Zabuza who recognised his potential as a shinobi


	4. Loss

Disclaimer: I own nothing. Naruto belongs to Masashi Kishimoto

* * *

_**Date : A week after Wave massacre  
Venue : Tazuna's house**_

Sighing, Kakashi massaged his temples.

When asked by the two genins, he smiled and said that Sandaime had requested Naruto return to Konoha immediately for some urgent matters. Thanks to his lousy excuses for being late, they easily accepted this lie. Without Naruto's additional manpower, the construction of the bridge had gone extremely slowly.

Kakashi mentally went over all the steps he had done to locate the orange-wearing genin.

He had summoned his nin-dogs to sniff out the heavy stench of blood, but somehow, Naruto had covered his tracks.

Kakashi instinctively knew Naruto was not capable of such brutality. The thing that perplexed him extremely was the vile chakra shrouding Naruto during the massacre that had sparked his changes. If anything, it was vile beyond reckoning, and yet, strangely familiar. Kakashi knew that he had encountered it before, but he could not quite remember where.

Making a note to ask the Sandaime, Kakashi walked out of the house and sweatdropped as he saw Naruto sleeping on the doormat.

Grumbling about crazy orange-loving brats, he carried Naruto up to a bed.

Lifting his forehead-protector to expose his Sharingan eye, Kakashi wrote a letter in the Sandaime's handwriting saying that Naruto had insisted on returning to Wave to help the construction of the bridge.

Panting, Kakashi covered his Sharingan eye before pushing the note into Naruto's hand.

This would help his case against his teammates.

Whistling innocently, Kakashi mentally noted that he had done his good deed for the day as he jumped out of the bedroom window and headed for the bridge.

Later that night, the genins and their jounin instructor, along with Tazuna, stumbled into the house after a hard day's work. When the curiosity became too much, Tsunami tried to unmask Kakashi yet again after a long string of attempts. The silver-haired jounin simply dropped to the ground, snoring slightly.

When she sweatdropped and attempted to bend down to unmask him, he rolled into the room and miraculously shut the door while snoring loudly, causing Tsunami to facefault before growling in annoyance at yet another failure as she stalked off...

* * *

_**Date : Day after Naruto's return to Wave  
****Venue : Tazuna's bridge**_

The workers gaped as their jobs were taken over by hundreds of orange-wearing blonds. Sitting at the center of the bridge was yet another orange-wearing blond sitting on a clone-turned-pedestal wielding a clone-turned-loudspeaker.

They did not want to look a gifthorse in the mouth though, and so, went for their teabreak.

Nearby in the woods, the rest of Team Seven sweatdropped as Naruto greatly sped up the construction. Kakashi frowned as he watched Naruto closely. After every few hours, the blond had been taking soldier pills, which startled the cyclops since Naruto should have more than sufficient chakra to sustain the clones easily.

'He must be using the chakra for something' guessed Kakashi correctly as he watched Naruto closely for something that may shed light on the recent happenings.

Every now and then, Naruto frowned as his eyes took on a 'faraway' glint before he sighed and resumed whatever he had been doing. Soon, Kakashi called the real Naruto over for a sparring session on the grounds of checking his growth.

Naruto settled into a bastardized version of the deadly stance he had displayed during the massacre as he scrunched his features up in determination. Rushing forwards, Naruto engaged his sensei in a taijutsu battle.

Despite his movements becoming more fluid, Kakashi noticed a startling trend - Naruto was actually faring worse than during the Genin survival tests.

This confunded Kakashi to no end as he sparred with Naruto.

* * *

_**Date : Four days after Naruto's return  
****Venue : Forest near Tazuna's bridge**_

It had took several days for Kakashi to come up with a plausible explanation. First, he had hypothesised that the method he had used to come to the bridge had drained him of his chakra immensely and ran with the hypothesis.

Logically, he inferred that what happened next was related to his chakra depletion before something clicked.

Naruto was afraid.

Afraid of what he would become if he became lax and let his guard down. He had become paranoid to the extent of refusing to do anything chakra-depleting without soldier pills.

Kakashi also guessed correctly that Naruto had tried to draw on Kyuubi's chakra to avenge Sasuke, but failed.

Having made these inferences, Kakashi gave himself a mental pat on the back before setting his mind on how to assist his hyperactive charge. But first, Kakashi had to confront Naruto.

"Come clean with me, Naruto. What has happened?" demanded Kakashi after he dragged Naruto to a clearing.

"Nothing..." mumbled the genin as he refused tomeet his sensei's eyes.

"Oh, really? Be honest or... no ramen for a year!" said Kakashi with a evil glint in his visible eye. Naruto gasped in horror before spilling all that he knew to the jounin who did a victory dance around the clearing.

Kakashi's triumphant mood was shattered when he heard the name of the technique Naruto used. Naruto apparently, had learned how to use the Inner Self jutsu.

Kakashi's mind raced a mile per minute as almost everything clicked into place.

The early admission of Naruto into the academy.

The repeated failures.

The assassinations when Naruto was young that suddenly stopped.

The bursts of rare insight.

Instances of astonishing prowess.

The orange costume.

The properties of the Dead Demon Consuming Seal placed on Naruto by the Yondaime.

Everything made sense to Kakashi at that very moment of epiphany.

Naruto watched in confusion as Kakashi held up four fingers and disappeared in a puff of smoke. Shrugging, he took a seat on a nearby log and prepared for a long wait.

* * *

_**Date : Four days after Naruto's return  
Venue: Tazuna's house**_

Kakashi frantically scribbled down his suspicions on the letter:

_Dear Sandaime Hokage-sama,_

_Please listen to every word I have written. _

_This is a major crisis. Naruto is the type of shinobi that comes once every few generations. Given time, he could have been greater than even his father. However, when he was young, the villagers deemed him a major threat. They used to plan assassinations on him every few days. I know this because I personally stopped quite a few. _

_Around the first or second year of Naruto's joining the academy, Naruto realized the villagers would leave him alone if he acted like a hyperactive, loud and most importantly, WEAK ninja. He began adopting a 'dobe' mask, neglecting his studies and throwing pranks as often as possible. O_

_ver time, he 'sealed' away his potential and his talents into his subconscious mind. He wore as much orange as possible so that he could train his stealth, and look as harmless as possible. I repeat, the Naruto you see is NOT the real Naruto. The real Naruto has been hidden for quite a while, approximately 4 or more years, and has not spoken a word since then. _

_Remember the forbidden scroll of seals? Naruto was tricked into stealing it. For a short while, Naruto allowed some of his potential to shine through in order to nab the scroll. _

_This proves that Naruto is capable of releasing the 'seal' around his talents. However, he learnt and performed the **Inner Self jutsu**. _

_Remember the Naruto you sparred with? That was Naruto's subconscious entity spawns from that forbidden jutsu that Uchiha Itachi personally tested, with such disastrous results, warped by suppressed hatred for the villagers. _

_That's right, Naruto does hate. He merely sealed it away with his potential. _

_This is a disaster because the Dead Demon Consuming Seal put on Naruto by the Yondaime split the Kyuubi's chakra into two parts. The normal red chakra is accessible to Naruto. However, the tainted purplish chakra was made inaccessible as it was deemed too dangerous._

_Do you see the disaster now, Hokage-sama? _

_The subconscious entity that possesses a strong hatred for Konoha had fused with the 'yin' chakra of Kyuubi, and roams freely outside the seal. _

_If the entity borne of Itachi mild resentment could cause such death and destruction, imagine what Naruto's entity will accomplish._

_Recently, Naruto attempted to draw 'yang' chakra during the skirmish with two missing-nins, but found no Kyuubi. He found the entity, who pushed his conscious mind aside easily and took over his body for a short while. _

_This signifies the danger, as the entity whom Naruto calls 'The Other' now has access to all parts of Kyuubi's chakra, as well as all of Naruto's potential. _

_This is a being beyond even Kyuubi's power, and it has given Naruto a deadline of three years to grow strong enough, before they fight permanently. _

_I highly suggest, Hokage-sama, to gather the Haruno clan, the Hyuuga clan, as well as the two Sannins Jiraiya-sama and Tsunade-sama as well as Gai in order to tackle this crisis. Do not belittle the killing prowess of this entity, it easily slaughtered two opponents I had trouble with. _

_Ex-"Inu-taicho"  
Jounin Hatake Kakashi_

Having scribbled this letter, Kakashi drew a kunai, pierced his finger with it, and summoned his fastest dog summon. Attaching the letter to the dog's collar, he gave the dog a good rub between the ears before sending the canine on his way

Having completed this task, Kakashi formed the seals for a Body Flicker jutsu back to Naruto to inform him of his inferences.

* * *

_**Date: Five days after Naruto's return  
Venue: Tazuna's completed bridge**_

Team Seven beamed triumphantly as they looked at the completed bridge. Surrounded by cheering townspeople and an ecstatic Tazuna and his family, Team Seven felt that moments like this made their job worth it. Waving a fond farewell to the people of Wave, Team Seven, having gathered their supplies, began heading back for Konoha.

"Wait... What will we call the bridge?"

"How about... the great Tazuna bridge?"

"...no."

"Okay, okay. The Great Sasuke Bridge?"

"Ew... Emo!"

"The Great Sakura Bridge?"

"That's taken, you moron."

"The Great Kakashi Bridge!"

"Dude... He's old."

"The Great Naruto Bridge?"

"Yeah!"

And so it was named.

* * *

_**Date : Day of completion of bridge  
Venue : Unknown, route to Wave from Konoha **_

A shadowy figure decapitated a canine summon with a single flick of a kunai.

Bending down, the cloaked figure inspected the note before smirking and incinerating it with a burst of flame chakra. The ashes of the letter flew away on a convenient wind as the cloaked figure headed towards Wave.

His cloak was covered in red clouds.

* * *

_**Date : Night, Two days after completion of bridge  
Venue : Unknown, route to Wave from Konoha**_

As Team Seven and their jounin instructor lay in their sleeping bags, Naruto was aware of a weird rushing in his ears. Grumbling, Naruto snuggled deeper into his sleeping bag.

That night, Sasuke had nightmares of the Uchiha massacre.

* * *

_**Date : Morning, Three days after completion of bridge  
**__**Venue: Unknown route to Wave from Konoha  
**__**Event: Death of Konoha's copy-ninja  
**__**Details:**_ Hatake Kakashi was assassinated in his sleep. No traces were found of the culprit.

* * *


	5. Merger

Disclaimer: I own nothing... Naruto belongs to Masashi Kishimoto

* * *

_**Date: Dawn after Hatake Kakashi's assassination  
Venue: Cave near Suna**_

Nine astral projections positioned around a sole figure waited for the figure in the middle of their ring to speak.

Assembled was the fabled inner circle of the Akatsuki.

Nine S-class missing nin. Each tasked with impossible tasks. The elite of the missing nin.

"Candy!" screamed Tobi happily, immune to the exasperation of his comrades.

The members all had cloaks with distinct red-colored cloud embellished onto them. The members stood in their pairs, except for one.

A half black and half white man in a Venus fly trap stood alone.

To his left, a hunched over man stood quietly next to his partner, a blond with long hair that covered one of his eyes.

To the Venus fly trap man's right, a large shark-like humanoid stood next to his partner, a man with the blood-red eyes of the Sharingan.

To the Uchiha's right, was a slender kunoichi, with a paper rose in her hair. Next to the kunoichi was a short, spiky-haired, mask-wearing shinobi, the origin of the short childish outburst.

A silvery-haired blond stood next to a large juggernaut with greedy eyes to complete the circle. In the middle of the circle, stood a man whose eyes had six rings in the iris.

"Hey, Leader-sama... Tobi wants to ask a question." stated the mask-wearing shinobi as he raised his hand.

The leader sweatdropped before thinking to himself, _'_no need to go that far...' while outwardly nodding.

"Can Tobi have a cookie?"

Three seconds passed before everybody present facefaulted.

Glaring at the mask-wearing shinobi, the man who acted as leader sighed.

"What Tobi meant to ask was... has the Ichibi been sealed?" asked Tobi. The blond answered impatiently, "Yes. What a weak jinchuuriki it was too. Stop asking stupid questions, Tobi."

"Yes, Deidara-sempai!"

The leader inquired about the status of the jinchuurikis.

"How many jinchuurikis have we captured?"

Zetsu replied, "We have the Ichibi already. Nibi continues to elude us."

"Do not seal the others yet. Remember we have to seal them in order. Hence, do not capture the Kyuubi's jinchuuriki yet." Sighing, the leader instructed the silvery-haired blond and his juggernaut partner on what they had to do. "Listen up, you two. Have you not intercepted Hatake Kakashi's letter?"

"We have, leader-sama."

"Good. Now, your next task is to stall the remaining Team Seven members. Use your own discretion on this task. It's fine to kill the jinchuuriki, though. We would merely have to reseal the beast once it breaks free, for I doubt the Kyuubi would let itself go down like that. And it will likely rid us of the abominable village of Konoha."

"Will do."

The leader of the Akatsuki paused, before turning to Itachi as an afterthought.

"Uchiha Itachi."

"Yes?"

"I want you to imitate Hatake Kakashi's handwriting and write a letter to the Sandaime Hokage of Konohagakure no Sato."

"The contents?"

"That Uzumaki Naruto, the jinchuuriki of Konoha has attacked and killed his teammates, and likely the copy-ninja himself. Recommend immediate exile."

"Certainly," smirked Uchiha Itachi as his pinwheel eyes began spinning...

* * *

**_Date: Dawn after Hatake Kakashi's assassination  
Venue: En route to Konoha from Wave_**

Kakuzu quietly contemplated Zetsu's report. Being the nearest to Wave, their leader had ordered him to intercept the ninja-dog and destroy the letter. He had used a little of his flame chakra to incinerate the letter.

The silvery-haired blonde who was known as Hidan on the other hand, gloated of his achievement to his partner, the juggernaut named Kakuzu. Hidan had found some blood that belonged to the copy-ninja of Konoha at the Great Naruto Bridge. During the night, Hidan had performed his ritual, just before the leader had called a meeting.

Smirking, Hidan and Kakazu commenced the attack at dawn. 'How poetic,' Hidan mused to himself.

* * *

**_Date: Dawn after Hatake Kakashi's assassination  
Venue: En route to Konoha from Wave, First forest clearing_**

After some hesitation on his part, Sasuke had incinerated the corpse of his sensei while tears flowed ceaselessly from Team Seven's eyes.

After all, Konoha's enemies must not get the secrets of the Sharingan.

Suddenly, the wind picked up tremendously as Team Seven extended their senses towards their surroundings.

Even as Sasuke and Sakura anchored themselves to the ground via use of chakra, Naruto obstinately refused to use any chakra in fear of the return of the Other, and thus, was swept away by the gale.

Shadowy tendrils lashed at the two remaining genin from all directions as Kakuzu stepped into the clearing.

Even as Sakura was knocked out with deceptive ease, Sasuke was flung by the impossibly fast tendrils into a tree.

Impacting heavily against the tree could not distract Sasuke from thinking about the identity of their attacker who had so easily knocked out Sakura.

'Could it be? A Nara?'

"Are you a Nara?" asked Sasuke as he glared at Kakuzu with a newly-awakened mature Sharingan while inwardly shivering from the potent killing intent that easily dwarfed their late sensei's.

* * *

**_Date: Dawn after Hatake Kakashi's assassination  
Venue: En route to Konoha from Wave, Second forest clearing_**

Naruto smiled at his fellow blond and he raised his hand in greeting.

"Hi! Can you help me? I'm a little lost..."

Hidan merely rolled his eyes before flinging his triple-bladed scythe at the genin who barely managed to avoid being decapitated. Retrieving the weapon via a strip of cloth attached to it, Hidan grinned before drawing a circle in the dirt with his right-toe while licking his scythe.

Naruto by now, had realised that the silvery-blond was hostile and had fallen into a sloppy fighting stance.

Ignoring the babbling of his opponent, Naruto examined the changed silvery-blond. Gone were the human features as the silvery-blond changed into a black humanoid with white patches. With a wince as Hidan cut his finger, Naruto realised that the wounds inflicted on Hidan would be inflicted on him. However, this gave Naruto an advantage as unlike his opponent, the genin had a healing factor.

Having analysed his opponent fairly accurately, Naruto fell into a new stance while his eyes clouded.

Logical thought would not be necessary in this fight, he decided as he began to unconsciously fight like the Other...

..and draw on his chakra to supplement his capabilities.

* * *

**_Date: Dawn after Hatake Kakashi's assassination  
Venue: En route to Konoha from Wave, First forest clearing_**

"I must congratulate you on your correct inference, Uchiha. Very well, I shall grant you the honour of knowing your executioner. They call me Kakuzu of the shadowy void, and yes, I am afraid to say I belong to that clan of weaklings. Your eyes will fetch a fair price indeed, as will their abilities... "

"...assist me in future ventures after I take them for myself!" declared Kakuzu before four shadows seperated from his form. The shadow creatures were masked and each were different from the rest.

Rushing the lone genin, Kakuzu and his shadow creatures began hurling high-end ninjutsu of all the elements.

Smirking, the Uchiha began copying the jutsus.

After a while though, Sasuke noticed his reflexes were slowing, whereas Kakuzu had not even broken a sweat. After nearly being impaled by an earth spike, Sasuke frowned as his body refused to move. As Kakuzu looked down, Sasuke saw that he had been caught by the Nara clan's most basic jutsu, the shadow bind, via the shadow cast by the earth spike. As Kakuzu made a single handseal, fifty shadowy tendrils sprouted forth towards Sasuke as the masks returned to him. Things looked grim for Sasuke indeed, as he was impaled upon the tendrils.

Kakuzu frowned, as he sensed something amiss.

Something was wrong. Whatever he had impaled felt like..

...gas.

Sasuke became a cloud of sickly green gas that rushed towards him.

Kakuzu grimly worked to isolate the potent toxin, but it was too late. Even as he feverishly manipulated his chakra, he could feel himself becoming lighter as light faded from his sight...

As his five hearts were infected by the toxic gas, Kakuzu saw a pale figure clad in white-sun emblazoned cloak walk over, while crowing about having obtained the Sharingan via DNA-obtaining jutsu.

"Orochimaru... you weak little snake... you will pay for this..." mumbled Kakuzu as his organs failed simultaneously.

* * *

**_Date: Dawn after Hatake Kakashi's assassination  
Venue: En route to Konoha from Wave, Second forest clearing_**

Hidan frowned as the mental link to his partner was cut.

Inwardly anxious for his partner, Hidan resolved to finish this fight as quickly as possible. Forming unique handseals, Hidan prepared to demonstrate the full extent of the power that enabled him to stand equal with S-class missing-nins like Uchiha Itachi.

"Hijutsu : Blood Release : Blood River!"

Naruto gasped in unrivaled agony even as his opponent shrieked in ecstasy. Blood gushed out of both of their pores as the heavens opened and rained crimson.

This was agony to end all agonies. Naruto fully appreciated the fact that he had never truly had a proper introduction to pain before.

Focusing, Hidan prepared to perform the follow-up to his new combo, which he had made after witnessing a similiar move used by the Ichibi jinchuuriki.

"Hijutsu : Blood Release : Impaling Blood Coffin!"

All the life-giving fluid in the area rushed towards Naruto from all directions. Spearing straight through skin, flesh and bones, the devastating jutsu easily impaled all of Naruto's organs. As Naruto's vision began fading into darkness, Hidan felt the need to say, "I've never met anyone who could take as much damage as you. Rest well, Kyuubi's jinchuuriki."

Was he going to die?

It seemed like it.

The world was fading.

Who turned out the lights?

Naruto guessed that he would just close his eyes for a bit and snooze...

_"No! You fool! I will NOT die like this, you foolish __dobe!"_

* * *

**_Date: Dawn after Hatake Kakashi's assassination  
Venue: En route to Konoha from Wave, Second forest clearing_**

Even as Hidan turned around, he felt a peculiar spike of chakra when it should have been fading. That was weird...

"It is time." declared a confident voice behind Hidan even as a second voice said, _"Finally, have you grown tired of the charades? Very well."

* * *

_**_Date: Dawn after Hatake Kakashi's assassination  
Venue: Naruto's mind_**

The Other looked at Naruto with amusement even as he inwardly grimaced at the determination etched onto his face.

_"I gave you three years. However, circumstances force my hand. Now, we fight... for control!" _declared the Other. Equal blades materialised in their hands as the blades met in a shower of sparks.

_"I am your potential, I am your skill. Without me, you will never win!"_ snarled the Other as he sweeped Naruto's legs out from under him, and followed with a vicious crescent kick into the ground.

Naruto spat blood and winced at the several broken ribs.

_"You just HAD to deny my existence, didn't you? You denied your very talent, your potential, your battle instincts! You just HAD to capitulate to the foolish villagers and their accursed accusations, didn't you? Even as I watched quietly from the sidelines, you spiraled into the abyss of WEAKNESS! We could have been so much together, Fool!"_ yelled the Other as he embedded a fist into the chest of Naruto as he bounced up from the impact of the crescent kick, crushing more ribs. Grabbing the arms of Naruto, he lifted him well off the ground with a devastating uppercut.

_"Did you really think you could defeat me? I am your strength and you are obsolete. This day, I will show the people of Konoha the real meaning of fear, WITHOUT you. You are a mask, you are nothing. I have no need of you anymore. Today, I will be the master, and you will be the horse."_ said the Other as he prepared to run Naruto through with a non-wavering blade. _"Today, with the Kyuubi's vast chakra and your very own potential, I will make Konoha rue the day they mocked us. I will do it WITHOUT you!"_

A 'snick' resonated throughout the silence. The blade was embedded to the hilt in Naruto as the Other grinned sadistically.

_"That was too easy... Fade away now... It is time to destroy all you hold dear. One by one, they will pay. I promise,"_ gloated the Other over the falling visage of Naruto.

Falling.

Falling.

Falling into darkness.

Into the Abyss.

Into nothingness.

Was he dead?

Would all his friends join him soon?

No.

No.

"No." said a third Naruto as he grabbed the blade wielded by the Other with his left hand.

"I am the master. You are but my talent, a part of me. I will NOT be defeated by the likes of you."

The Other stumbled back in shock as a new Naruto emerged from the darkness to challenge him once more.

"Today heralds the death of the mask I have worn for a long time. However, did you think you could win me within my own mind?"

With deceptive ease, Naruto rushed the Other.

_"It matters not. Die!"_ exclaimed the Other, his nervousness becoming more tangible by the minute.

It did not help that the Other saw in Naruto's visage the only thing he ever feared.

Death, embodied by the Shinigami.

"Within the bounds of my mind, I am master. I control all, and not the other way. Remember that."

As the Other began fading away into obscurity, only one Naruto was left. As the wind carried away his fading form, a whisper was carried on the wind.

"_Remember that I will return should you prove unworthy, Naruto. Use the Kyuubi's chakra which I assimiliated well. You have earned my respect."_

* * *

**_Date: Dawn of Hatake Kakashi's assassination  
Venue: En route to Konoha from Wave, Second forest clearing_**

"Miss me?" said Naruto as his wound rapidly closed up and fell into a stance, that Hidan could easily tell, was designed to kill.

Things it appeared, seemed to have become interesting.

'Who cares about Kakuzu? Time to see how strong you are, little jinchuuriki...'

* * *

Sorry, been very busy recently... and my computer crashed...

* * *

**Organisations: Akatsuki**

A highly secretive organisation. Rumoured to be one of many divisions of a larger organisation, the organisation named 'Dawn' or 'Red Moon' consists of 9 S-class missing-nins led by 1 SS-class missing-nin. Recently, its rumoured that they abandoned their original goal of collecting all nine bijuus for unknown reasons. Rumour has it that the 'leader' is little more than a figurehead and there is a shadowy person behind this organisation...

**People: Nara Kakuzu**

A man who single-handedly defeated the Shodaime of Konoha, he is rumoured to be one of the strongest in the mysterious organisation, Akatsuki. He is able to take organs belonging to others for himself. Before his assignment to take out Team Seven, he possessed five hearts, one Wind chakra, one Earth, one Fire, one Water and his one. However, he was defeated by Orochimaru via a potent poison developed by a new rival organisation. He can materialise shadowy tendrils to attack his opponents at will, as well as use all of the Nara clan's jutsu. This prodigy-turned-missing-nin is notorious for being money-minded and a fabulous businessman, and thus, was Akatsuki's treasurer.

* * *

**People: Hidan**

A fairly unknown member of Akatsuki, he is a fanatical follower of the religion, Jashin. His bloodline which grants him control of blood links nicely with the powers granted by his faith. He was partnered with Kakuzu due to his lack of elemental ninjutsu. However, his blood-linked jutsus fair very well in most encounters, as does his mysterious powers.


	6. Fall

**Disclaimer: I do NOT own the awesomeness that is Naruto. That is Kishimoto's.**

* * *

_**Date : Day after death of Konoha's copy-ninja  
Venue : Unknown route to Konoha from Wave**_

The clearing was deathly silent as the two opponents circled each other, watching, waiting for the perfect opportunity to strike. Two predators eyed each other. Two blonds watched each other for signs of weaknesses. Three things happened simultaneously.

Hidan drew his scythe.

Naruto drew two kunai.

All hell broke loose.

Naruto tossed 12 shuriken and 5 kunai before rushing the opponent.

They were easily deflected.

With a metallic 'clang', the two combatants met each other in the middle of the clearing. Hidan pressed his second hand to his strike to enhance his power and was rewarded.

Slowly but surely, Naruto was losing ground, oweing to leverage. Hidan forgot one thing, however.

Naruto had another kunai in his offhand.

With one hand holding off Hidan's scythe, the shorter blond spied an opening.

A distant memory came back to Naruto.

Zabuza.

"_Eight targets_, _Throat. Spinal Column. Lungs. Liver. The Jugular Vein. Subclavian Artery. Kidney. Heart. Pick the one you wish to lose."_

Using the kunai in his offhand, he went for the subclavian artery

Hidan cursed and broke away, just in time to avoid another flying kunai. He did not anticipate that Naruto would immediately rush him however, and found himself next to the shorter blond.

Hidan noticed that a kunai was heading for his head.

He cursed and ducked.

Another was heading for his leg.

He jumped.

Naruto swung and missed with his right hand, but tilted the weapon and stabbed downwards.

Hidan dropped and rolled.

"Stay still and get hit like a man!"

"What kind of moron do you think I am? Never!"

The S-class missing nin found it highly amusing to toy with the genin. Afterall, the leader had not specified how in which he could stall the genin.

He loved the adrenaline borne of battle.

"Come, my adversary," intoned Hidan wisely as he flipped Naruto the bird.

The genin snarled and rushed.

* * *

**_Date : Day after death of Konoha's copy-ninja  
Venue : Hokage Tower_**

The Sandaime was surprised, to say the least.

He had just received a sealed letter from the copy-ninja, who was supposed to have returned to Konoha in order to submit his report. The gateguards were surprised to have received a letter from a Kakashi clone, seeing as he usually used dog summons as messengers. Most perplexing.

'Oh well,' he thought. 'He probably had an arguement with the summons or something.'

He opened the letter.

_Dear Sandaime Hokage-sama_

_Please pay attention to every word I have written. This matter is of the utmost importance._

_Uzumaki Naruto, jinchuuriki of the nine-tailed fox, has fallen prey to the same insanity displayed by my successor, one Uchiha Itachi, the ex-ANBU commander. Do you not recall the brief taijutsu battle you had with him during the Forbidden Scroll's theft?_

_Do you not recall the brief insanity he displayed?_

_It has deteriorated. He has already gone on a rampage in Wave, attacking and killing two A-class missing nin that were beyond even me, as well as countless innocent people. He has also killed a certain C-class chuunin, and the genins Uchiha Sasuke and Haruno Sakura. Even as I pen this, he is coming for me._

_I doubt that I will live to see the next dawn._

_He is coming for me now._

_I, the copy-ninja of Konoha will fall soon._

_So, Hokage-sama, stop reading the orange smut(1) and take my suggestion!_

_I hold him no grudge, Hokage-sama. I beg you to pardon him. Please, grant him exile. Do the right thing, Hokage-sama. Allow the foolish genin the chance to repent. Exile should be sufficient._

_This is likely my last correspondence._

_Ex-"Inu-taicho"  
Jounin Hatake Kakashi (likely KIA)_

The Sandaime could not believe his eyes. He read and reread the letter umpteen times before he could no longer deny that it was genuine. Kakashi's handwriting was distinct, a messy scrawl that was nearly illegible. He felt the makings of a migraine coming on.

How did it come to this?

How could a C-rank mission have gone so terribly wrong?

How could an innocent young genin be so cruel?

How?

Regardless. He would heed the letter's dire warnings.

He would exile the traitorous scum. He would spare the traitor as per his successor's wishes.

The Sandaime gathered his resolve as he viciously quashed any misgivings he had about the new development. He gave the orders for six ANBU squads to be on high alert for Uzumaki Naruto.

They were authorised to use lethal force, should he enter the borders of Konohagakure no Sato. They would show him what happens to traitorous scum.

As of tomorrow, Uzumaki Naruto, aka the Kyuubi, would be an S-class missing nin._

* * *

_

**_Date : Day after death of Konoha's copy-ninja  
Venue : Unknown route to Konoha from Wave_**

Hidan was getting nervous, to say the least.

If he was not careful, he would be incapacitated. He could not die, but what's the point in living if you could not bring the ecstasy that was pain to others?

'Jashin-sama would be so proud.' he thought, mentally nodding to himself.

Making sure that he remained in the circle where he could maintain his metamorphosis, he watched his opponent cut himself up.

Hidan could not die. Naruto could not die either. However, Hidan could not regenerate.

To make things worse, all of the shorter blond's strikes were lethal, and designed to incapacitate, or kill. No movements were wasted.

'Very interesting. His fighting style has changed drastically.' noted Hidan.

By this time, Hidan had begun using chakra to boost his movements against his opponent.

He could not afford not to - his opponent's speed was incredible, even without chakra, and his assault, relentless. Hidan who was being strictly defensive, was tiring at an alarming rate.

'He's not using any chakra... Yet I can barely keep up. I knew I wasn't good at taijutsu, but this is simply ridiculous,' groused Hidan, as he utilised an opening to sidekick the blond away.

Naruto was getting impatient. Clenching his teeth, Naruto tried to channel chakra to his right arm to increase its performance against the S-class missing nin. It was a bad idea.

At first, the chakra was slow and steady. He scored a good stab on Hidan's left leg, and the same pain flared on his left leg. It regenerated.

Then, like a sleeping giant that was awakened, the chakra flowed faster and faster. He scored a good slash on Hidan's ribs, and felt the same pain on himself. It regenerated as well.

The chakra flow became like a raging torrent.

All hell broke loose.

"Argh!"

With an explosion, his arm blew up and opened up a whole new level of pain. What remained was a stump.

Hidan watched his fellow blond let up on his assault, gasping in pain, with amusement.

"What's the matter? Need a hand?" He smirked. "Get your own!"

All Naruto could do was writhe in agony as the arm slowly regenerated.

'Note to self, I am so not going to do that again. My chakra pools have been bolstered so much that my chakra control is shot to hell,' Naruto mused. 'Guess I just have to wing it without chakra.'

Hidan merely waited as Naruto staggered to his feet. Then with a warcry, the battle continued.

"Hey, on the account that we are both blonds, could you, you know, let this be a purely physical fight?"

"Fat hope. Hijutsu : Blood Gathering."

"...crap."

The clearing was full of blood. All the blood pooled together into a LARGE puddle beneath the two blonds.

'Uh oh. Trouble?' thought Naruto.

"Hijutsu : Blood Spikes"

All the blood beneath their feet became spikes. Fortunately for him, Naruto escaped the spikes with a timely jump that lifted him into a tree. Unfortunately for him, Hidan did not.

All the spikes that impaled Hidan caused major damage to Naruto as well. Hidan now had several unsightly holes.

'Wait... was that a heart? I think I see his lungs? Ew...'

"I'm not done yet! Hijutsu : Blood Infiltration."

The blood in the area rushed to enter Naruto via all his orifices including his pores, his nose, the new holes that had not regenerated yet, and certain parts of the body that shall not be mentioned.

"What's happening to me..."

"Behold! Hijutsu : Blood Destruction!" exclaimed Hidan as he completed the sequences of seals.

"I don't feel so well," groaned Naruto as he stumbled down from the tree.

"Now, the blood under my control will destroy your blood. Regenerate you may, but I doubt you can regenerate that quickly. Soon, your brain will undergo severe deprivation of oxygen. It has been entertaining, but this is the end. I would say that I hope to see you again soon, but I likely won't. Farewell, Kyuubi's jinchuuriki," gloated Hidan as he disappeared into the shadows.

On second thoughts, Naruto realised he had been foolish to challenge a member of the Akatsuki, the organisation people whispered about.

There was no way a genin could defeat a S-class missing nin.

Wait... wasn't Kyuubi gone?

No one was coming to save him.

'I guess I really am going to die,' thought Naruto sadly.

Wait... Was that the shine of metallic armour?

As the world faded, he saw the glint of metal before all he knew was darkness.

* * *

(1) Kakashi meant Icha Icha Paradise... which he _usually_ loves.


End file.
